Samuel Levi Jones
Samuel Levi Jones utilizes photography and his multidisciplinary artist background to illustrate a complex rejection of control and the framing power of structures, He earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from Taylor University and a B.F.A from Herron School of Art and Design in 2009. He received his MFA in Studio Art from Mills College in 2012. He is the recipient of the 2014 Joyce Alexander Wein artist prize awarded to him by the Studio Museum in Harlem. His work is in prominent private and public collections including SFMOMA, The Rubell Family Collection, LACMA, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. He currently lives and works in Indianapolis, IN.
b. 1978, Marion, IN
Lives and works in Indianapolis, IN
Education
2012
MFA Studio Art, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2009
BFA Photography, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
2002
BA Communication Studies, Taylor University, Upland, IN
Solo Exhibitions
2021
Galerie Lelong & Co, Paris, France
2020
Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, FR
2019
Mass Awakening, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
No More Tokens, Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA
Left of Center, Newfields, Indianapolis, IN
Let Us Grow, Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris, FR
2018
Patron Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017
Paulson Fontaine Press Residency, Berkeley, CA
Remedial Suffering, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN
2016
Burning all illusion, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Reciprocity, PATRON, Chicago, IL
Samuel Levi Jones, The Arts Club, London, England
Samuel Levi Jones, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY
48 Portraits (Underexposed), EXPO Projects, Chicago, IL
2015
After Fred Wilson, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN
Talk To Me, Pro Arts, Oakland, CA
Unbound, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2014
Black White Thread, PAPILLION ART, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Delete, Los Angeles, CA
48 Portraits (Underexposed), Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN
Group Exhibitions
2021
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC; DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI
2020
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
2019
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Gallery 360, Northwestern University, Boston, MA; Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, NM; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona, FL
2018
Sidelined, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA; Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MO
2017
Basile Gallery, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA
Excerpt, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, NY
2016
Chicago Invites Chicago, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
Trust Issues, Ronchini, London, England
A Dark Matter, Tarble Gallery, Eastern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
2015
Trashed and Treasured, Napa Valley Museum, Napa Valley, CA
Theory of Forms, PATRON, Chicago, IL
I Like It Like This, S2 Sotheby’s Gallery, New York, NY
The Silence of Ordinary Things, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA
2014
The History of Technologies, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
OPEN, PAPILLION ART, Los Angeles, CA
2013
A Basic Measure, Service Employees International Union United Long Term Care Workers, Los Angeles, CA
Transport, Pro Arts, Oakland, CA
2012
X Libris, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
Baila Con Duende, Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, CA
The Last Show on Earth, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Awards and Honors
2017
Sustainable Arts Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Artist in Residence, Paulson Fontaine Press Residency, Berkely, CA
2015
Artist in Residence, Pamela Joyner and Fred Giufrida, Sonoma, CA
2014
Recology Residency, San Francisco, CA
Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, Studio Museum in Harlemn, New York, NY
2012
Vivian and Margarita Stephenson Award, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2011
Mills Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Oakland, CA
2010
Evelyn V. Staton Fellowship in Fine Arts, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2009
Mildred Darby Menz Award, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
2008
Junior Bratton Award, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
Public Collections
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MO
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
His work is informed by historical source material and early modes of representation in documentary practice. He explores the framing of power structures and struggles between exclusion and equality by desecrating historical material, then re-imagining new works. Jones investigates issues of manipulation and the rejection of control in a broad sense.